2031 The Future
by StoryBug13
Summary: The version of my other story - Cracked Future - that I submitted into the CHERUB writethefuture competition.


The Future

"Where do I go, now?" James Choke asked quietly into the concealed radio in the cuff of his sleeve.

Amy's voice came reassuringly back at him. "Second right, and then you're in. Don't forget to switch out the lights."

This irked James slightly. "I know what I'm doing, Amy,"

A snort came back at him over the radio. "Over and out,"

James Choke had been working this case for over seven months. This was the final stage. He'd been forced to miss his wedding anniversary, and his youngest daughter's ninth birthday for it. Working undercover wasn't all it was cracked up to be when you're nearing your fortieth birthday.

James turned the handle of the door. It was locked. This was no problem, as James had his lock gun with him. Some might have called it old – fashioned, but it was a lot more reliable than the lock breakers that MI5 had issued. The door creaked slightly as it opened, but James was prepared for it. Keeping his cool, he stopped the door from swinging the whole way open, and ducked under the almost invisible beam stretching between the doors. The beam was designed to set off an alarm and let off incapacitating gas, so that intruders would not be able to do anything inside the room; if James hadn't given Blades a hand fixing it, he would never have known about it, and would currently be writhing on the floor.

As James stepped through to the main control room at Help Earth HQ, he contemplated how difficult it had been getting in. Everyone was known by nicknames, and you had to pass a rigorous entrance test that was one of the hardest things James had ever gone through. And still, he was treated with suspicion, and waved out the room when Blades and Onion wanted to speak business. This was no problem, as minute listening bugs had been dropped in strategic places all around HQ. These bugs were state of the art, and could store up to six hours of sound. They had enough battery life to last for four weeks, but generally ran on solar power. One of the good things about being in the Australian outback was the constant sun, so there was almost no chance of the bugs running out of power.

There was a thump in the passageway outside as James sat down. Anxiously, he leaned back far enough to peek out the door, but couldn't see anything. Listening hard, he heard a distinctive shoe squeal.

"Amy?" he breathed. "Amy, I'm in trouble. It sounds like there's someone here." He paused for a second, expecting a reply. "Amy?"

…

On the other side of the world, Amy Collins was making a big show of frantically tapping away at her keyboard, and gaping at her computer screen. She hastily picked up the radio headphones she'd dropped, as Kerry came over with a hot coffee from the machine in the hall.

"What's up?" Kerry asked curiously.

"I completely forgot, I was supposed to phone my brother and tell him to pick James up from the Help Earth compound."

"Is James all right?" A frown began spreading over Kerry's face, and Amy hurried to rectify it.

"He's fine, you know? Got the bugs planted, and everything, just annoyed that I forgot his pick up."

Kerry grinned. "Well, that's a relief. We have to go up for the reunion in a couple of weeks' time, and it would be a shame to miss Joshua's big day."

Amy laughed, rather nervously, Kerry thought. "Are you OK, Amy?"

"Fine. Now, I really need to get on with this mission report, so you wouldn't mind giving us a bit of peace and quiet?"

"No worries." Kerry backed away, and sat at her desk, plugging in a set of earphones as she went.

Kerry was in the middle of writing an email to her middle daughter, Sammi, when a buzz from her pocket alerted her to a text.

_MISSION GONE BELLY UP_

_TELL AMY TO GET OFF HER BUTT, _

_AND FIND OUT WHA_

The message cut off halfway through, and Kerry got a sinking feeling in her stomach as she realised her phone had received the text less then five minutes ago, round about the time she'd been chatting to Amy, who'd said that the operation had gone smoothly…

Kerry didn't have time to go through all the implications of the text, and lifted her head to see Amy shutting down her computer.

…

James was shocked to see six burly men creeping down the corridor towards him, wearing masks and carrying baseball bats.

Swearing quietly, he hastily shoved his equipment down the back of a filing cabinet while trying to contact Amy on his radio, and texting a message to Kerry. He was halfway though his message, when the door got kicked in. He hit send, and smashed his phone into the temple of the first guy, before getting in a couple of knockout blows, and a vicious roundhouse kick, before getting whacked in the stomach with a baseball bat. James crashed back, momentarily winded, but a second later was back on his feet, being driven by instincts honed in the dojo since he was twelve years old.

He baulked slightly when he saw the remaining three guys going in a pincer movement; one coming from each side, and one running straight at him. Bracing himself, he grabbed the bloke in the middle's bat and used the momentum to roll him over his back, realising too late that it was Onion, Help Earth's second-in-command. _Oh, well_, James thought. His cover was blown, anyway.

Moving nimbly, he dodged the bat from the right, but got smashed in the elbow from the left. The explosive pain made James stagger slightly, and that was everything the last bat-wielding terrorist needed. He moved in to deliver a crashing blow to the back of his head, as James realised he'd reached the end of the line.

…

"Where are you going?" Kerry asked, standing up and feeling the reassuring bulge of her long range stun gun.

"I..." Amy stumbled as she scrambled for an excuse. It had been a few years since she'd last been undercover, and most of the training she'd received had been forgotten. "I was, um, just finishing up, you know? I called John, and he's, uh, coming to, pick James up. He should be getting on the next flight back to England in a few hours."

Kerry scrutinised someone she'd always considered a friend, and wondered if her suspicions were utterly wrong. She hoped so. "Why have I just received a text from James saying that he's in trouble, and to tell you, because you're not answering the radio?"

James hadn't actually said she wasn't answering the radio, but it was obvious. Kerry realised she hadn't seen Amy don the headset for a good ten minutes.

Amy realised she'd been rumbled. She could have cracked herself around the head for being so stupid. Kerry knew James was undercover, and Amy was his handler. She should have stayed with the headset on, and made a big show of saying goodbye to James, before hugging Kerry, and –

"Sit down!" Kerry ripped the stunner from her waist, and aimed it at Amy. A dozen ways of taking Kerry down popped into Amy's head, but it was years since she'd done proper combat training, and she had a layer of fat around her midriff from her last pregnancy. In short, she was a far cry from the exotic black shirt James had met when he first joined CHERUB.

By contrast, Kerry regularly went to the gym, helped out at CHERUB campus, if she was needed, and occasionally went on short undercover missions for MI5 with her husband James. All of this had kept her in good shape, and she could still take down most grown men with several well-aimed kicks and a knock to the head.

"Now," Kerry growled, as Amy sat down. "I'm sure you remember my children?" Amy nodded apprehensively. "My Gwen missed her daddy a lot when he had to miss her birthday party. I was pretty upset too, when James had to miss our anniversary. I have not seen James for seven months. So if he winds up dead, I don't care where you are, I _will _stick a bullet through your head."

Amy had no doubt Kerry would do this. She'd beaten up a man three times her size with a baseball bat when she was fifteen. If she was upset because James had died, Kerry would take out her anger on the person she saw as being responsible. Amy.

"We can get the whys and wherefores later. For now, is James in danger?"

Amy hesitated slightly, before nodding.

Kerry pointed to the cordless phone standing on her desk. "Go on. Ring security. Get them to send one of the rapid response teams out. James is in danger, and needs help."

Amy grabbed the phone, and dialled security. "Bob, we have a situation. James has been rumbled. I need a rapid response out there pronto."

…

Amy was sitting slumped in a chair in one of MI5's numerous interrogation rooms. She started as the door banged, and newly instated CHERUB Chairman Joshua Asker steamed through. He sighed, as he saw one of the best mission controllers on campus waiting to be questioned.

"Amy." Joshua sat down, and spread some files on the table between them. "You've been around terrorists before. What happened? Why did you tell James it was safe, when it quite clearly wasn't?"

"Is James alive?" Amy asked quietly.

"Yes. But, he has fractured ribs, a broken arm, and was extremely lucky that Kerry worked out what you were doing." Joshua paused for breath. "You didn't answer my first question."

Amy looked over at Joshua, and realised she might get off easy if she acted sorry. "They told me that they were just going to knock James unconscious! I don't understand how it all went so badly wrong!"

"Pull the other one, it's got bells on." Joshua said dismissively. One thing he hadn't inherited was his dad's awful temper.

"I'm serious! I had no idea something like this was going to happen!"

"You knew exactly what was going to happen, so don't even try going there!" Amy shrank back in her seat. Maybe Joshua had inherited his dad's temper, after all. "You were in charge of two CHERUB agents down there! You were lucky they were pulled out last week; otherwise I'd have your butt rotting in a prison cell right now! I cannot believe the way you've acted, Amy. I thought you were mates with James, and then you go and get him almost killed!"

"Fine!" Amy stood up, so her nose was facing Joshua's chest. "If you really want to know! I agree with Help Earth!"

Joshua looked shocked. "You're a Help Earth terrorist?"

"Did I say that?" Amy looked exasperated. "I agree with their policies is all. We are ruining our planet, so when the mission was authorised to give James a hand, I told them."

"Told them what?"

"I told them I was an MI5 agent. Intelligence officers were coming down to infiltrate Help Earth, but I never breathed a word about the children!"

Joshua crashed back into his chair, only just realising that in the heat of the argument he'd stood up.

"Amy-" Joshua sighed. "Amy. You almost got an MI5 officer killed. You're a mission controller. I am going to be facing some difficult questions tomorrow from

the Prime Minister and the Intelligence Minister, and they are not happy. You've been a mission controller for a number of years, now. But, in the face of this disaster, I have no option but to ask you to resign from your post. As CHERUB doesn't officially exist, I can't really take this to court. So, you'll get the same package any retiring staff would get. We'll set you up with a new life elsewhere."

Amy was quiet for a second, thinking through the consequences, before nodding. "OK. I'll take what I can get, but what about my children?"

"You didn't marry a cherub, so your kids aren't authorised to come on campus, you know that. You'll have to sort them out yourself."

Amy nodded sadly. CHERUB had been a huge part of her life, and now she'd wrecked it. CHERUB would give her the retirement package, but they weren't likely to give her a generous amount of money after this.

Joshua spoke. "You know you're still welcome to campus reunions, and other special events on campus, Amy. I just hope you learn from this experience."

Amy waited until Joshua was out of the room, before putting her head in her hands, and began sobbing quietly.

…

"Uuunngh." James groaned as he came round. His first impression was white. The second was clean, and by the time he got to that point, he realised he was in a hospital.

"Daddy!" a squealing nine-year-old voice cried. "Mum, he's awake!"

James opened one eye to see his youngest daughter Gwen grinning at him mischievously from about half a centimetre away.

"Gwen, don't do that. He's just woken up." Kerry scolded her gently. She smiled at her husband. "How do you feel?"

"Like Bruce Norris is battering my head with a tree trunk." James groaned. "One made of metal."

Sammi laughed. "You haven't said thank you, yet."

"Who am I meant to say thank you to? What happened, anyway? One second everything was quiet, and I was getting the job done, the next, Amy's not answering her radio, and I've got six thugs trying to kill me!"

"Amy was rogue." His eldest daughter Joanna said quietly. "She was our mission controller, but she was passing information to Help Earth."

"She _what_?" James was aghast.

Sammi nodded, and took up the story. "She sent information to them after we were pulled out of the mission. Apparently she feels bad about putting us kids in danger, but she doesn't mind putting adults into danger."

"That lying two-faced –"

"James!" Kerry interrupted. "We know. _But _we're glad you're alive."

James shook his head angrily, and sighed. "If they don't award you a black and navy shirt, I will complain. You were fantastic on that mission. Finding out where the Help Earth HQ was, was brilliant, Sammi."

"I know, right?" she said gleefully.

…

**EPILOGUE**

AMY COLLINS left the UK, and went back to live in Australia with her two children and husband. She is settling in well, but has not completely cut off links with Help Earth.

JOANNA and SAMMI CHOKE received the black and navy shirts, respectively, while GWEN CHOKE is due to start basic training next year. JAMES and KERRY CHOKE quit their jobs at MI5, and went to work on CHERUB campus; James in the technical department, and Kerry as a handler, and martial arts instructor.

…


End file.
